Nokia recently found itself taking component manufacturer STMicroelectronics to court over the HTC One and its microphone. In case you missed all those developments, STM created this microphone part for Nokia, and wasn’t supposed to sell it to anyone else. Instead, it ended up providing the mic to HTC for use in the One. Nokia went and got an injunction that prevents STM from doing any more of this business, and while there won’t be any recall of the HTC One, HTC will need to find a new source of mics in the future. We’ve wondered just what steps these companies would take next, and HTC has now made the first move, redacting its spec sheet for the phone to no longer claim the presence of an HTC One HDR microphone.

This is interesting for a couple reasons. First, we know that HTC still has stocks of the One which continue to include the infringing STM HDR mic, and presumably bulk mic components that have yet to be placed in phones. We’re not sure how large those stocks are, but it looks like the part will keep finding its way into Ones for the immediate future.

Then, there’s the question of what HTC intends to do once that part’s no longer available. Based on statements, it’s supposed to “transition to improved microphone designs,” but we kind of assumed that meant finding another part (or parts) that would essentially do the same thing – that is, keeping the high dynamic range that the initial mic offered.

Now, though, we’re not sure. Is HTC just covering its back in case it’s unable to find a comparable replacement? Has it already resigned itself to just giving new Ones a plain-old regular mic? We hope to get these answers soon.